173 / 424
GAZETTE
L A W B R I E F
MAY/JUNE 1995
The At torney General 's Of f ice: The Model Legal
Of f ice of the Future?
By Dr. Eamonn G. Hall
Introduction
Recently, the office of a powerful
statesman came under scrutiny; the
subsequent and inevitable "Report"
was not favourable. The head of the
Office spent nearly a quarter of his
time trapped in staff meetings after
discussing matters that had little
to do with his primary objective. In
terms of "marketing" its services,
(among other Government
Departments), the Office was described
as a "dud". Mid-level officials were
reported as going straight into the
boss's office, persuading him to undo
decisions that others thought had
already been determined. Certain
officials of the Office, who didn't fit
into any box on the organisational
chart, we're held accountable to no one.
Management had a reputation for
ineptitude. Computer facilities were
lacking. Subsequently, staff members
were seen clutching a document
labelled "Strategic Goals for 1995".
There was active talk of striving
towards a "zero-defect operation".
Whose office was described above?
This was not, repeat not, the Office of
the Attorney General of Ireland but the
office of Clinton & Co, the current
administration in the White House in
Washington. {See "White House has
Tapped a Businessman to Make Some
Order From Chaos",
The Wall Street
Journal Europe
February 15, 1995}.
This illustrates a truism: if three wise
men, or women, visited any of our
offices with a view to "reviewing"
operations, improvements may always
be possible.
The Review Group
The Attorney General was described
by
Kingsmill Moore J.
as "a great
officer of State, with grave
responsibilities of a quasi-judicial
nature as well as of an executive
nature".
{McLoughlin
v
Minister for
Social Welfare
[1958] IR 1 at 17;
see also
The Office of the Attorney
General in Ireland
by Professor
James Casey (1980). A second edition
of the book is forthcoming}. As
readers know, three wise men, Mr.
John Hurley,
Secretary, Public Service
Management and Development in the
Department of Finance (Chair), Mr.
Frank Murray,
Secretary of the
Government and Mr.
Tim Dalton,
Secretary of the Department of Justice,
carried out a review of the Office of
the Attorney General at the end of last
year. The report was published in
February 1995. Incidentally,
McCann FitzGerald
and
Eugene
F. Collins,
Solicitors, were thanked
in the introduction for their
assistance.
Justice Cardozo noted that
precedents
that are outworn
may be decently
dis-
carded without
affront to the
sentiment
that there shall be no breach of the legal
order in the house of its
custodians.
Recommendations of Review Group
The Review Group recognised that legal
work undertaken by the Office of the
Attorney General was very demanding
in terms of knowledge and time and that
the achievement of quality was of the
"highest priority". The staff were stated
to have "worked assiduously" in
responding to the demands placed on
them from the growing volume of legal
activity, at both domestic and European
levels. However, the Group considered
that despite the best efforts of the staff,
"the systems and procedures used [did]
not enable the office to optimise output
and performance to the extent
achievable with modern systems". In
certain areas, the Group found "major
scope for improvements".
The preparation of a Strategic
Management Plan encompassing both
the Advisory Section, the Parliamentary
Draftsman's Office together with the
Office of the Chief State Solicitor was
recommended. Apart from other
management aspects, the Review Group
considered that "the single greatest
inhibitant to optimal function in the
AG's Office [was] the undeveloped
state of its information technology" .
Truly, the same could be stated of many
legal offices. In the Parliamentary
Draftsman's Office, the Group
considered there was a great need to
extend the use of computer systems and
databases in:
• researching and retrieving
precedents and legal opinions;
• streamlining the process of drafting
bills;
• streamlining the process of
publishing legislation; and
• statute updating and indexing.
149